The Iberian Black Metal act Noctem strikes back with a new tour that will hit the European stages of countries like Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic, Gwermany, Austria, Hungary and Romania. The Spaniards will be presenting their latest opus "Haeresis" (Prosthetic Records, Art Gates Records) supported by other AGR label mates Martyrium and Rebel Souls.

This triple Extreme Metal tandem presented by Art Gates Records will devastate the following countries and cities:

There are your standard heavy metal festivals – and there is 70000TONS OF METAL. Just imagine: You’ve just returned from a beautiful island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean after spending hours enjoying the sun and white sand on a wonderful Caribbean beach. Feeling the warm wind blowing in your face, you are now sitting in a hot tub on a giant cruise ship, up close to a large stage, headbanging to your favourite band. You are watching from one of six whirlpools with a direct view of the stage on the pool deck, which is the biggest open air stage structure to sail the seas. It’s loud. It’s full of metalheads from all over the world. Sounds perfect? Well, it is ......

It’s been more than a week now since most fans have returned home from a more than successful 70000TONS OF METAL 2018 - round 8, more than a few of them still suffering from a serious case of PCD (post cruise depression) following four incredible days on board the Independence Of The Seas. More than 3,000 metalheads boarded the ship together with 61 bands, each of which was going to perform at least two shows (124 shows on 4 stages in total) during this unique event at sea. Some fans spent the shore day in Turks and Caicos with their favourite band during one of the various artist-led shore excursions. Picture yourself swimming with Meshuggah in the awe inspiring presence of majestic stingrays, or snorkeling with Aborted and Exhumed by your side to make you feel safe. Wolves on a safari? Sure, go on a coast-to-coast island tour with Wolfchant!

On top came the one of a kind All-Star performance “Jamming With Waters in International Waters” featuring members e.g. from Kreator, Sabaton, Cannibal Corpse, Destruction, Sonata Arctica, Meshuggah, Enslaved, Primal Fear, Dark Tranquility, Voivod, Seven Spires and many more, playing all time heavy metal and hard rock classics together on stage for the first time ever.

And there was another premiere, a record rather, that no one expected to be broken after last year’s peak of 74 different nationalities represented on board: 2018 beat 2017 by one more nation and proved once again that 70000TONS OF METAL is the most global cruise, uniting 75 nations on board this year. Germany, USA and Canada were among the top five of the most represented nations aboard. The youngest sailor was only 1 year old, the oldest turned 79 on the ship.

Coming up: Round 9

So watch out, Sailors: After the cruise is before the cruise. Fans can already look forward to round 9 of 70000TONS OF METAL, THE original, The World’s Biggest Heavy Metal Cruise sailing from Miami/Ft. Lauderdale to Labadee, Haiti and back, January 31 – February 4, 2019.

Internationally-renowned heavy metal leaders Lamb Of God will support metal legends Slayer on leg one, North America, of what will be Slayer's final world tour. The 26-date trek will begin on May 10 and visit several major cities - from San Diego to Toronto, Orlando to Minneapolis. Additional support will come from fellow metal heavyweights Anthrax, Behemoth, and Testament. Tickets go on sale to the public this Friday, January 26; log onto www.lamb-of-god.com for all ticketing info.

Randy Blythe of Lamb Of God says: "If you are lucky enough to be invited to play even just once with living legends like Slayer, it's an incredible honour. Slayer gave Lamb Of God our very first two overseas shows. Slayer has subsequently taken us on several full-length tours, both at home and abroad. The guys in Slayer and their crew have also always been very, very cool to our band. It is irrefutable that Slayer helped create the genre of aggressive metal, and all modern bands of that ilk owe them a huge debt - I know we do. To be asked to be a part of their final tour - well, it just makes you stop and realize just how lucky you are. Hail Slayer! We'll see you on the road..."

Dates for Slayer's final world tour, leg one, North America, are as follows:

Russian sci-fi metal group Sunwalter head out on their first tour of 2018 taking 3 East European countries. Titled The Course Of The Alien King, this will be a joint tour with Polish group Lux Perpetua. The band are still heavily promoting their recent release, Alien Hazard, which has been getting extremely positive reviews. This is always a fun and colourful band to check out live and they hope to announce dates in Russia and wider afield very soon!

“Earthmen! After the lengthy New Year holidays, we have finally returned to the habitual orbit around this planet. While the Earth celebrated the date, we have decided on the upcoming venues in terms of our next European tour, and we are ready to share the information with you. Unfortunately, there are no dates of Russian shows on the list yet, but we’ll try to persuade the Anunnaki race to consider that territory as landing site during the tour. Please, don’t hesitate to let us know, where else you would like to visit Sunwalter performances.”

With the release of the third Bloodshot Dawn album Reanimation last Friday and the band due to embark across the UK starting this week. The band have now revealed plans for their first foray into northern America territories. The band will tour across guitarist Morgan Reid's home country of Canada in April. "We are hitting Canada this April!!!" exclaims band leader Josh McMorran. "We are pleased to be hitting North America for the first time as well as going to Morgans home country!!"

Out via Hostile Media on 12th January 2018; Reanimation features prominent guests including Jeff Loomis (Arch Enemy, Nevermore), Paul Wardingham, Ken Sorceron (Abigail Williams, The Faceless), Mendel Bij De Leij (Aborted). The album was mixed and mastered by Per Nilsson from Scar Symmetry while artwork was completed by Chris Kewli & Tomasz Strzalkowski.

Tokyo based “Samurais from Hell”, Survive, will join Venom Inc + Suffocation on "Blood Stained Earth Tour 2018" in Europe, kicking off on March 9th in Bristol (UK). Other support will come from Brazilian thrashers Nervosa and Canadian ethnic symphonic metallers Aeternam. Further details can be found below.

Mexican symphonic folk metallers Cabrakaän will be hitting the road with Quebec's Valfreya and Alberta's Forsaken Rite for this year's "March Of The Frozen Western Canadian Tour". The tour will see the Mexican transplants whom now call Canada home and residing in Calgary, AB perform in three provinces during the month of February. During the tour, Cabrakaän will showcase new tracks from their upcoming 2018 full length "Cem Anahuac" due out in spring 2018 to follow their 2014 debut EP "Songs From Anahuac".

Staying true to their roots, Cabrakaän's music combines elements of metal orchestrated with Mexican folklore along with a wide variety of instruments such as strings, acoustic guitars, Jarocha harp, marimba, ocarinas, Huehuetl, and Teponaztle. Their lyrics are in English, Spanish, Zapoteco, Nahuatl and other ancient Mexican languages. The band's name is based on a character from the Mayan sacred book known as the Popol Vuh, where Cabrakaän was the god of mountains and earthquakes.

"We are proud our roots and our culture and we want to share it with the world through our music. When we are on stage, we try to give our fans a great experience by creating an atmosphere from the time of the Aztecs, using costumes and make up. The purpose of our sets too is to give fans more of our culture visually and musically so they can connect with us and enjoy the performance even more." says drummer Marko Cipaktli.

Cabrakaän was formed in Toluca, Mexico in 2012 and have been calling Canada home since first performing in the country at the 2017 Metalocalypstick fest in Lone Butte, BC where the beauty of the North won them over and encouraged them make the grand decision to relocate.Their debut EP "Songs From Anahuac" was unleashed in 2014 and displayed a mix of death, folk, and symphonic European influences with Prehispanic instruments along with storytelling of Mesoamerican mythologies (Aztec, Mayan, Tlaxcaltecan, Olmecan) plus Mexican folklore such as La llorona, La Bruja, Day of The Dead.

Wasting no time in Canada, Cabrakaän are currently completing production on their follow up full length album entitled "Cem Anahuac" set for release in spring 2018. The album will be an expression of pride for their roots, history and traditions along with their love for metal and traditional music from their home country of Mexico.

Australian summer is about to get blackened: Mayhem are kicking off the live delivery of their complete landmark debut album, 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas' to Down Under tonight. The Norwegian black metal icons will be joined by local label mates Départe and will be supported by Bölzer and Ruins.

A list of all confirmed Mayhem shows in Australia and New Zealand can be viewed below.

Tickets for 2018 are flying out the door, with less than 50 VIP tickets remaining. Do not delay if you’re planning on joining us in the Serpent’s Lair! Standard tickets, as well as the very popular Deposit Scheme and the last few camper van pitches are all currently available in the ticket store. So, about those band announcements...

Jasta & Friends are set for a Ronnie James Dio main stage slot on Sunday! As a great friend of Bloodstock, we’re thrilled to welcome Jamey Jasta, frontman of Hatebreed, Kingdom of Sorrow and Icepick, back to the festival with his solo band, Jasta. However, this is not just Jasta, this is Jasta & Friends, so expect some special guests to jump on stage for various songs, just for the BOA faithful at Bloodstock 2018! Guests will be revealed in due course, but we can tell you that the mighty Kirk Windstein (Crowbar, Down, Kingdom of Sorrow) will be one of them! Jamey says, “I’m beyond excited and honoured to have my first UK show with Jasta be at the mighty Bloodstock Festival! So many legends have graced the Bloodstock stages, we will channel their energy and give the fans a killer set with some special surprise guests!” Check out Jasta’s recent video for ‘The Same Flame’ here - https://youtu.be/P7PnbooaTOE.

Venom Inc also join Saturday’s main stage bill! With new album, ‘Avé’ released via Nuclear Blast last year, the seminal British metal icons will be bringing both classic tracks and new to Bloodstock next August. Check out the lyric video for ‘Avé Satanas’, taken from that album here - https://youtu.be/Xt_yGt0ET0U and get ready to welcome The Demolition Man, Mantas and Abaddon to Catton Park!

Our Saturday night Sophie Lancaster stage headliner will be Orphaned Land! The ground-breaking band’s new album, ‘Unsung Prophets And Dead Messiahs’ is set for release later this month via Century Media and features guest appearances from Blind Guardian’s Hansi Kürsch, Tomas Lindberg from At The Gates and Steve Hackett. Check out the epic album teaser here - https://youtu.be/GNm20DFCO7Y.

Also joining the bill are the hotly tipped Danish prog metal outfit Vola, who join the Sophie stage bill on Saturday. The band are hard at work on their new studio album, set for release through Mascot Records this year. Get a taster of their sound via the video for ‘Stray The Skies’ taken from 2016’s debut album, ‘InMazes’ - https://youtu.be/EipdyUZfrG0.

If you haven’t grabbed your ticket yet and are a bit stretched post-Christmas, Bloodstock’s payment plan helps ease the ‘lump sum’ shock of paying for your ticket by breaking it into five smaller, more manageable amounts. Sign up in the ticket store any time before 28th Feb for an initial deposit of £36.00. Thereafter, four additional instalments of £29.00 will debit your bank account on 3rd April, 1st May, 1st June and 2nd July respectively. Find out full details and sign up over at https://bloodstock.seetickets.com.

If you already know you can only attend for one day, sign up for a day ticket reminder email as day tickets will not go on sale until next summer. Register your day ticket interest here - https://www.seetickets.com/register/bloodstock.